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Editorial policy
The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) is a knowledge-sharing website, supporting people working in Asia Pacific countries to reduce poverty and promote sustainability. It aims to disseminate & improve access to quality resources, evidence-based research, and policy documents. Emphasis is on practical and plain-English information, so that it is accessible to the broad ADG audience (see About the ADG).
The ADG collaborates with government, academia, private and not-for-profit organisations, facilitating knowledge exchange in the region, and fostering an online virtual community of practitioners and development organisations.
The overriding goal of the Australian Development Gateway is to build an open and pluralistic content portal dedicated to quality. The content management of the site is based on the editorial judgment of selected individuals and organisations (see ADG partners) that demonstrate extensive knowledge of the subject, objectivity, and openess. Editors are responsive to direction from advisors, also experts in the subject area, who themselves are drawn from a range of institutions and stakeholders.
The main criteria of the ADG editorial policy is that content must be useful for its intended audience - see the 10 point checklist of suitable ADG content.
Editorial review
The site uses a 'deferred publishing' approach, so that content suggested by users is reviewed prior to acceptance on the site. Each submitted item is considered on an individual basis, based on these editorial guidelines.
Any content offered, including views expressed in forums, will be rejected if it advocates violence, contains profanity, is inflammatory in nature, is not relevant to the subject, is culturally insensitive or is otherwise inappropriate.
Content contributions
Contributors to the ADG's content may range from individuals and NGOs to academic, public and private organisations. Organisations and individuals who contribute such content will be acknowledged on the site, via the contact information provided upon submission.
To contribute a resource, users select the category to which they would like to make a contribution and click on "Suggest a resource" in the ADG TOOLBOX, positioned in the right hand side column of the page.
Resource links
Resources linked to from the ADG portal must be available online (as a web page or downloadable file on an organisation's or individual's public website), in full text, and available free of charge to a public audience. Submitting users will have obtained permission from the owners of the content, and have ensured its availability / clearance for public distribution.
Given the practical focus of the ADG, it will accept user-submitted resource links (based on the identified target users of the ADG) such as the following:
- summaries of "lessons learned" and practical project information (ideally 2-5 pages)
- toolkits, manuals and practical user guides, primarily for use in the field, but also for project planning, project design, project management and post-project evaluation
- case studies and project reports
- research reports, working papers, discussion papers, conference papers
- policy briefings and guidelines, development related statistics, fact sheets
- links to quality websites and knowledge repositories that are useful and focus on particular types of development work e.g. http://www.who.int, http://www.aidworkers.net, or http://www.sphereproject.org
The ADG will generally not accept resource links to short-lived content such as news stories.
File size and type
It is advised that download files greater than 500Kb in file size are broken up into smaller components. It is also suggested to remove any large images or audio attachments prior to submitting the documents (unless required for context, e.g. charts, diagrams). This will allow people working in low bandwidth environments to access the resource.
To protect against virus invasion and ensure maximum compatibility, the preferred file format is *.pdf (portable document format). Free-of-charge conversion tools for MS Office to *.pdf conversion include http://www.pdf995.com, http://www.gohtm.com and http://www.openoffice.org.
Hosting of submitted documents
The ADG functions as a true portal, i.e. provides links to external websites and resources, and not as a repository or host for user-submitted documents. In exceptional cases, we are able to assist by providing hosting for relevant documents from individuals and organisations in developing countries which do not have access to a website. This arrangement is subject to suitability and copyright permission being provided by the user.
Errata
The ADG is committed to correcting quickly any errors of fact or interpretation that stem from decisions or actions of the editorial staff.
Editorial disclaimer
Gateway editors are under no obligation to link to any site, or to accept the contribution of any individual or organisation. Links and resources are periodically checked for suitability. The ADG nevertheless cannot guarantee the accuracy or reliability of the information drawn from the links or resource communities, and assumes no responsibility for the timeliness or validity of the information derived from them.
The views expressed in content appearing on the Australian Development Gateway are entirely those of the originators, and should not be attributed in any manner to the Australian Development Gateway.
In summary: 10 point checklist of suitable ADG content
| Is the resource relevant to aid and development in the Asia Pacific region? |
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| Does it address any of the current focus areas of the ADG, i.e. Agriculture, Development practice/effectiveness, Disaster management, Education, Enterprise development/microfinance, Environment, Governance, Health, HIV, ICT for development, Infrastructure or Water? |
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| Is it practical information, written in plain English? |
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| Is the resource available online in full text? |
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| Is the resource available free of charge, cleared for publication on a website? |
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| Have you obtained permission from the owner of the content to submit this resource? |
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Is it one of the following types of resources? - Summaries of "lessons learned" and practical project information; - toolkits, manuals and practical user guides; - case studies and project reports; - research reports, working papers, discussion papers, conference papers; - policy briefings and guidelines, development related statistics, fact sheets. |
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| Does the content have longevity, i.e. is it valid, relevant and applicable in the near future? |
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| Is the suggested resource less than 3mb in file size? If not, can it be broken down into 3mb segments to ensure ease of download from low bandwidth environments? |
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| If the resource is a downloadable file, is it in PDF or MS Word format? |
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